Seattle weekend traffic: Happy Lunar New Year

Another weekend, another whole list of things that could disrupt getting around. Some of these events might be things you’re doing, too, like Lunar New Year or the Flower and Garden Show.

We’ve combed through the alerts and advisories from both the Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) and the Washington Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to deliver transit-friendly solutions for your weekend outings.

Some of this weekend’s advisories—and transit-oriented alternate routes to events—are listed below.

Weekend events

The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is already happening, and will continue all weekend, at the Washington State Convention Center. Multiple buses run through the Convention Station, including Metro routes 41 74, 101, 102, 150, and 255, plus Sound Transit 550. Outside the tunnel, westbound 7, 10, 43, 47, 49, and 150 take you a block away.

The Seattle RV Show is going on all weekend long at Centurylink Field Event Center. Link Light Rail goes to Centurylink (take your pick of the International District or Stadium stations), as does the First Hill Streetcar and a ton of bus routes from Metro, Community Transit, and Sound Transit.

Pacific Northwest Ballet’s Swan Lake has shows all weekend: 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday, then Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. The 2, 3, 4, 13, and 19 will all get you close to McCaw Hall.

On Sunday, it’s Lunar New Year and the Year of the Dog in Chinatown-International District from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., complete with a traditional lion dance and other celebrations. South King Street will be closed between 6th and 7th Avenue South, and Maynard Avenue South will be closed between South Weller and South Jackson Street.

Road work and bus service changes

Thursday night northbound Sounder trains from Seattle are being rerouted as buses because of a mudslide. They’ll resume Friday morning if there are no additional “blocking events.”

In West Seattle, the C Line and route 116 have been rerouted around the Fauntleroy ferry dock all week—that continues through Monday.

Starting earlier this week and going through the weekend, the rightmost lane of eastbound Denny Way will be closed from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. between Fairview and Minor all weekend long for Seattle City Light work.

Starting Friday and continuing through May, Seattle City Light will be periodically closing lanes on First Avenue South, south of Railroad, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Just for the weekend, Stewart Street will go down to one lane from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day for work on bike lanes and other infrastructure improvements.

Saturday morning, First Avenue South will be closed southbound from Yesler to Washington from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. for Center City Connector Streetcar utility work.

Sunday morning, WSDOT will close the southbound Mercer Street onramp to Interstate 5 from midnight to 7 a.m. to install metering equipment.

Note: We put immediate and new closures in this section, but not every single planned street closure appears here. Explore all 97 active SDOT projects, many of which involve street and lane closures, here. Here are Sound Transit rider alerts; here are King County Metro rider alerts.

Sports: Seattle Thunderbirds

Hockey team the Seattle Thunderbirds are playing Portland on Friday night at the Showare Center in Kent. That’s about a 10-minute walk from the Kent station, so if you don’t mind catching a different thing back up, the Sounder train goes there. The 150 also serves Showare, and can get you back up afterwards with trips leaving Kent as late as midnight.

This article has been updated to add an additional road closure.